Wednesday, July 05, 2017

THE DOLL SQUAD (1973)

Even though I am very much a cult movie fan there are large
areas of the cult film world that over the years I have avoided for various
reasons. The films of Ted V. Mikel's definitely fall into the avoided 'on
purpose' area. I've had plenty of opportunities to see a number of his more
notorious movies but I've almost always dodged them. I caught one of them as a
Mystery Science Theater episode so I don't really consider that as a viewing. I
know I caught THE CORPSE GRINDERS (1971) at some point in the past but it was
from VHS on a very drunken night and my memories of it are almost nonexistent.
I'd love to eventually see THE BLACK KLANSMAN (1966) because the plot just
sounds amazing. So when I sat down the other night and popped in the Blu-ray of
this film from 1973 I wasn't really sure what I was in for.

It turns out that THE DOLL SQUAD (1973) is a mildly
competent, low budget action adventure film about a freelance team of female
spies that are hired on occasion by the
American government for black ops. In this case the 'computer' (remember when
just the mention of a computer somehow communicated accuracy if not
perfection?) says that Sabrina Kincaid and her group are the right choice for
this mission, so they are sent in to take care of a Bond villain style plot
against the USA and the world. The villain is played by Michael Ansara and he
seems to be having a pretty good time even though he never leaves the confines
of a small house that serves as his base of evil operations. I suspect that his
scenes were shot over the space of about 2 days at most. He plays the character
straight but the script asks him to be the typical movie villain who
over-explains his plot and then can't quite kill the hot lady in time.

Female lead Francine York as Sabrina is quite good and quite
shapely. There was something familiar about her face so I was not too surprised
when I looked up her list of credits to learn just how busy her career has
been. She just passed away at the beginning of 2017 at the age of 80 and still
has a film that hasn't come out yet!

The movie is colorful, swiftly paced and never really boring
even if I feel it should be a little shorter. The meager budget often shows and
Mikel's direction sometimes undercuts his darker intentions and leaves his
actors hanging. The film isn't afraid to kill off it's female cast but we don't
know them well enough for it to be effective. Also, the deadly serious tone
just cannot be maintained for the full running time so the movie occasionally
lapses into unintentional humor. These moments when Mikel's reach exceeds his
grasp cause a few chuckles but they are also kind of endearing. It's heartening
to see a film like this being made with little money but a lot of energy. THE
DOLL SQUAD isn't very good but it is entertaining if you take it in the spirit
intended. The same cannot always be said even today.

3 comments:

The last movie of his I tried to watch was 10 Violent Women. The movie was so incompetent I turned it off. Also, I found The Corpse Grinders boring. He seemed like a cool guy in real life. How big of a part does Tura Santana play in The Doll Squad? If there is an area of cult cinema I stray from it's the films of Andy Milligan. They are fascinating because you can learn so much about who he was as a person, but they are so incompetent and sleep inducing.